Sagebooks Summer Reading: Week 6 & 7

This post was sponsored by Sagebooks. All opinions are mine and mine alone. 

Even though I know Sagebooks suggests reviewing the previous 4 lessons before you teach a new one, I haven’t been doing it. Mostly because we haven’t needed to – and I also forgot.

Sagebooks is engineered to teach your child the 500 most frequently used Chinese characters in children’s books by building upon previous chapters in a logical, thoughtful way. In Set 1, the first 100 characters are more tangible in the sense that they describe people and things most children are familiar with. But starting in Set 2, the characters become more abstract and complex and even with daily review, Glow Worm  (~5) is having trouble remembering them without additional help.

And thus, after 3 months of doing it my way, I finally remembered (ok, that’s not true, I ran across the recommendation while perusing the Sagebooks site) and decided to apply it. 

 

Where Are We?

We started Week 6 at Lesson 2.3:14 (Set 2 Book 3 Lesson 14) and I planned on us finishing Set 2 Book 4 Lesson 12 by the end of Week 7.

Did We Do It?

No. No, we did not. *hides*

What Happened?

We spent the majority of Week 6 solidifying the last 6 lessons of Set 2 Book 3. It was frustrating, but at least Glow Worm seemed okay about reviewing. I think it was because he couldn’t remember the characters anyway so maybe it felt like the lessons were brand new. (Oh gosh, I hope that’s not true.)

While we reviewed a lot, I let Glow Worm randomly add words at the end of sentences because it made him laugh and if it made him laugh, he’d be more willing to read.

Week 7, I kept procrastinating and before I knew it, it was THURSDAY. Sigh.

What was the point of working so hard in Week 6 if I was just going to waste it all this week? WHY DO I NEVER LEARN?

Here’s a video of him reading Set 2 Book 4 Lesson 8.

Anything Else?

I need to realize that Glow Worm is human. If he’s tired or cranky, he’s not going to do well. So, if I want to make sure he’s absorbing these lessons, I need to be consistent. This way, having an off day will not destroy the one time we’re going over Sagebooks this week.

Also, he’s getting better at the characters he’s previously struggled with. He still consistently says the wrong character for 就/jiu4/ 面/mian4/side/, but then he will correct himself right after. So, I have to hold off immediately telling him what the character is if he pauses. Glow Worm has admonished me several times for not giving him enough time to come up with the right answer. He said I was interrupting his thinking.

Far be it from me to interrupt him from thinking.

Alright. Next week, I’ll be providing another Behind the Scenes look at Sagebooks. Also, please do join me and our Sagebooks HK Parent Support Group on Facebook. I’d love to hear about your experience with Sagebooks.